It Doesn't Matter
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Rolly and Owen talk about how close he and Annabel seem to be getting. Takes place after Owen and Rolly take her to breakfast and right before Owen and Annabel go to the car wash together. One-shot.


It Doesn't Matter

"So…Annabel. She's cute."

"Hn," Owen grunted, more focused on driving than anything else.

"Like, are you guys together or-"

"We're friends. I told you that."

"No," Rolly said slowly, leaning back in the seat. "You told me that you were talking to some girl at lunch about the radio show. That's a lot different than inviting her to breakfast with us. And she rides in your Land Cruiser like it's nothing! I saw her, that day up at the studio. Remember?"

Owen nodded slightly. "What? You jealous?"

"Oh yeah, sure. Real jealous."

"Then why do you care, Rolly?" Owen glanced at him before reaching forward and turning up his stereo slightly. "Huh?"

"I want to know if my friend's getting the hook up or not. Why are you questioning me?"

"We're not…hooking up. God. We're friends."

"Friends," Rolly said slowly. "You guys are friends."

"Completely platonic."

"So you wouldn't care if I, like, asked her out or whatever?"

That changed things. Completely. Frowning slightly, Owen gripped the steering wheel. "What about the girl you like? The one that punched you or whatever?"

"What about her?"

"Aren't you, like, waiting for her?"

"Ha!" Rolly shook his head at his friend's naivety. "If I see her again, yeah, I'm gonna ask her out. Until then though, it's not like I'm with someone. I can date. And Annabel is hot. If you're not going to-"

"You can't ask her out."

"So you do like her," Rolly ribbed. "Don't you?"

Owen glanced over at him. "Of course I do. I never said I didn't. That doesn't change anything though. We're still just friends. She's not…into me. At all, I don't think. She just wants to be friends."

"Have you seen her since we went out to breakfast?"

Owen hesitated. "Well, we almost kissed at Mallory's-"

"What?"

Letting out a breath, Owen said, "I don't think she was that into it though. I mean, she didn't act like she was or anything. And she hasn't brought it up at lunch since."

Rolly shook his head. "Have you?"

"No."

"You have to put yourself out there, Owen."

"I don't-"

"She's not just gonna come out and ask you, you know," Rolly told him. "You should ask her out."

"I'm…I guess the next concert or whatever we go to I can-"

"Great. Do that."

Shaking his head, Owen said, "Let's stop talking about me. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're sitting here, telling me all this bull about putting yourself out there, when you couldn't even talk to the punching girl."

"Hey, I told you, I froze up. Next time I see her though-"

"You think she lives around here?"

"I assume so," Rolly told him. "I've never seen her at school though."

"I doubt she goes to the Fountain School," Owen said. "Maybe she goes to Jackson."

"Maybe."

"Maybe Annabel knows her," Owen offered up easily.

"Maybe," Rolly agreed, nodding. "I bet she knows a lot of people. She really is pretty though. And hot."

"Okay, knock it off."

"What'd you say her last name was?"

"Why?"

"Just wondering. I'll ask around school, you know? Find out stuff about her." Rolly glanced at him. "I don't want you to, you know, fall for a whore."

Rolling his eyes, he said, "Greene. Annabel Greene."

"Greene…Oh, dang, I do know her." Rolly suddenly sat up, looking over at his friend. Reaching forward, he turned down the radio, which about got him killed by Owen. Lucky for him, his words distracted the other teen. "She's that girl that at that party last summer hooked up with her best friend's boyfriend. Will Cash."

"Will Cash," Owen said slowly. "I don't know him."

"You don't know anybody," Rolly reasoned. "Besides, he goes to the Fountain School, I think."

"Hn."

"So see? She is a whore."

Owen shook his head. "She told me about that, once. That it wasn't true."

"Of course she said that," Rolly said with an eye roll. "Slut."

"Shut up. If she says it, it's true."

"What did she tell you anyways?"

Owen shrugged. "She asked me, that first day I met her, about when I punched that kid last year. So I told her about it. Then she told me that what I had heard wasn't true. I told her I hadn't heard anything and asked her what she was talking about. She said that it wasn't true that she slept with her friends boyfriend. That's all she said though."

"That chick? Her friend? She's hot. I've seen her." Rolly glanced out the car window, thinking. "Sophie. I think that's her name."

Owen shrugged. "That's the past anyways. I don't care."

"Owen-"

"I don't. I didn't know her then and she didn't know me. Why should anything matter before now?" Owen shook his head slightly. "Besides, we're just friends."

Rolly started to unbuckle his seat belt as they pulled up to his house. "You keep telling yourself that."

After dropping Rolly off, Owen switched the CD to this new one he had just made earlier that day. It was of a new instrumental band he had just recently discovered and wanted to experience them alone before springing them on anybody. Turning up the radio, he pulled away from his friend's house, nodding his head slightly as he listened to the song.

For some reason though, even the noisy music couldn't blast out the thoughts in his head. Was Rolly right? Was he wrong? Did it really matter if Annabel had slept with that guy, that Will Cash guy? Not to Owen. Or at least he didn't think so. Annabel was, as Rolly had said, hot. It's not like he didn't think she had ever been with anyone before.

Not that he thought she was a slut like Rolly did. Because he didn't. At all. Annabel was sweet and kind and thoughtful. And of course, she was beautiful too. That was a definite plus. He couldn't blame her though, if she had slept with this girl's, this Sophie's boyfriend. He didn't know the whole story. Maybe Sophie and Will had already broken up. Maybe she didn't sleep with him at all! It didn't matter anyways. What mattered was now, this very moment.

And at this very moment, he somehow saw Annabel, all the way from his car as she stood in a parking lot, loading groceries into her car. Here he was, trying to listen to great music while all he could think about was Annabel. Was this a sign, her suddenly appearing before him?

"Must be," he mumbled to himself as he turned into the parking lot. No one, but her had ever been able to drown out the music in his head. He thought about her so frequently now that it was hard to believe he hadn't even known her six months yet. Hardly even four. Maybe only three. He wasn't sure; he wasn't good at math.

"Get in," was all Owen said as he pulled up next to Annabel, leaning over to push open the passenger side door. For a second, Annabel stared at him in shock. Still, Owen just smiled at her, that smile that he couldn't get off his face when he was around her.

Because last summer didn't matter, that party didn't matter, Rolly didn't matter, and Cash didn't matter. Annabel mattered though and what she did to him mattered. She made him feel funny, made him feel light headed. Hell, the girl made him _tune out music_.

How could anything matter more than that?


End file.
